Soft Moon In The Dark
by QianYun
Summary: [SasuNaru] That ice cream that was slowly being devoured made Naruto feel rather uncomfortable.


Disclaimer: Naruto and its related counterparts are property of its owners. Meaning that I claim nothing in here except the construction of words that created this story.

Summary: (SasuNaru) No one could really blame him for doing what he did. Really, it was all his fault in the first place.

La/-/er- This was written for several reasons. One, as a sort of make-up for not updating _Delicious Revenge_ when I was supposed to. And two, because I got inspired. There was a scene in the Seto/Jou YGO story, _Sweet Dreams Are Made of Pocky_ that spawned this whole thing. And the last reason, although I didn't realize this until halfway through, was for Naruto's birthday, although I'm writing this 8 days early and posting this a week early, this is my story for Naruto. I hope y'all enjoy it. (So how old is Naruto anyway? Lol.)

Oh and before I forget, this sorta, kinda takes place after the Chuunin Exam and everything, there's the indication of fighting going around... but it wouldn't make sense if Sasuke had went off to Orochimaru in this story, even if he did come back... so, eh, let's just say it takes place randomly after the Exam. Adding a few years to their age of course. And the next day... I just read 233 and without spoiling anything I'm just gonna say COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY IGNORE THAT SASUKE WENT OFF. Now I'm off to think long and deep about what happened. And in case anyone cares, I usually write a little something about that latest Naruto chap in my bio.

A note in case you've never seen my name and haven't read the summary, this has SasuNaru in here, although it's really mild, if you don't like this relationship, click the back button.

EDIT: 10/4/04- After a slight reprimand from one of my reviewers, I decided to use a speck of that brain power I knew I had and changed the title, but that's about it. And for those of you who wanted to know why I changed the title... The original was 'Something'. So yeah...

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Soft Moon In The Dark --- The La/-/er 

Lips slowly smothered itself in the rich, smooth cream. A pink tongue swiped out, luxuriously licking slightly darker pink lips. White pearly teeth peeked out as he bit his lip, pondering how best to go for the second bite of the treat in his hand.

Sitting back to a tree, legs stretched lazily in front of him, Sasuke had a picture of complete and absolute contented peace. Hair gently blown haphazardly by the wind, clothes settling around in different positions every other minute, he appeared unruffled and impervious to everything. Moment by moment, he only concentrated on the sweetness in front of him, seemingly untouched by all that went around him.

To be sure, it was his day off, his day to relax and just simply think of nothing. Nothing, but for the sweetness of the dessert in front of him that is. It had been a long time since he had treated himself to one of these. And at his first bite, he wondered why.

It was a sweet that decidedly had just the right balance of everything. There was that definite sweetness, but one that came from the pure unadulterated taste of vanilla. There was that smoothness that came from the cream, the creamy substance sliding down his throat bit by bit. That sharp tangy coldness that enveloped his tongue, his mouth, his teeth: that moan-worthy taste of warmth that came as soon as he swallowed.

Passing by the creamy cold, he reached the crunchy wafer cone. So plain by itself, but with vanilla ice cream, provided an irresistible taste. An additional sweetness that was not there with the vanilla, that bites that gave that extra 'oomph' to the whole concoction.

All throughout the tasting, swallow-by-swallow, lick-by-lick, a hidden figure stood by and watched.

Having arrived there mere moments before, he stood, enraptured, intoxicated by the scene he saw. Granted, it was normal enough, a simple devouring of a common dessert in Konoha. But the simple fact of whom... and the way that it was going in bite by bite...

It was all made sweeter by the aura that he saw. That peaceful air that he saw so little of these days, settled around the most unlikeliest of persons. Emotions rose up, nothing of the romantic, sappy variety, just that of contentment. Absolute bliss that came from seeing someone dear to you be so... so peaceful, so content, so absolutely... so normal.

Not a word that is supposed to be used as if it was a precious event, one of the ordinary. But in the world they lived in now, the world that the boy in front of him had lived, normal seemed so terribly not.

An inexplicable feeling to be sure, but at that moment seeing something so normal caused him to feel off-balanced.

Niggling of the past weeks, the past months, the past years rose. Emotions that were never meant to be understood, never meant to be acted upon, shoved its way to the front. Emotions that were not allowed in these days, in the worlds of reality. A feeling that he wanted to make Uchiha Sasuke feel this way, look this way for the rest of his life, day after day, month after month, year after year. He simply wanted Sasuke to take away the frown, take away the dark aura and replace it with the gray one that presented the opportunity of humanity.

A gray kind of feeling, one that can be dark or light; a feeling that had a balance to it. He never wanted Sasuke to have a light aura; simply put, that was not who Sasuke was, is or ever will be. He is a person of the dark, a dark that contains that bright unwavering moon, shedding light upon the land, causing shades of gray and dark blue.

And he wanted to be the cause of that, the ability to be able to see the moon, he wanted to give Sasuke that. He didn't want to be the sun, he didn't want to be the stars; he wanted to be the moon that lit up the dark in a soft, unobtrusive light.

With those thoughts running through his mind, he was unable to stop himself. An urge welled up in him, an urge to do what he wanted to do, by simply taking a step.

A step towards him and a step towards a relationship. That of friends, deep, deep friendship, and maybe something more. Friends did not do that things he wanted to do, wouldn't want to step into the darkness, out of the bright sunlight, to become the moonlight.

So he stepped out.

Technically into the sun and metaphorically, into the dark.

Unfortunately, while things of course didn't go according to plan, as there was no plan, the path he wanted- expected- to take swerved sharply in a direction he was later glad that it took.

Walking swiftly across the short distance between the shadows he had hid in (ironic really, he stepped out of the shadows into the sun when really, he was doing the opposite) he paced over the green grass and swiftly sat in the lap of the boy he had been observing.

Thankfully, the ice cream was finished. Finished with a last satisfying bite that was accompanied by the slow, tantalizing sucking of fingers. Which probably accounted for what the moon did then.

The newly turned moon, Uzumaki Naruto, had swiftly sat down in the lap of one Uchiha Sasuke and proceeded to give him one of the best kiss of his life.

Don't be mistaken, it was not the best of kiss in terms of smoothness and execution, it was clumsy, a near miss of nose against nose. A typical cliché, first, "real" kiss. A fumbling one, a nervous one, although this kiss contained no uncertainty.

A kiss that fumbled, but like a football player who was determined not to lose, a fumble that was quickly picked up on and achingly became a sweetly bitter kiss. One that spoke of promises, of life in the dark, of dark with a light, of emotions not to be made fun of. It was a kiss of truth, a kiss of pain and anxiety and anger and connection and hope and love and most importantly, a kiss of promise.

A promise that was to last for this life and lives after. A promise and a kiss that caused the two so much pain hereafter, but ten times that amount of happiness.

Arms slowly slid around a neck, lips parted for several moments before connecting once again, one questioning and one answering. Another pair or arms rose and caressed its way around a waist, wrapping around and pulling tight up against him; there was a desperate question.

But moments later, the connection was lost as the question was taken back, fear took hold, anger reigned and rejection was on the tip of his tongue.

A rejection that was never heard and never answered because it just so happened that a squirrel fell upon Sasuke's head.

Startled by the new addition, taking time to chase it away, the fear left, anger was stuffed back into its corner to take center stage another day and rejection was turned into hope.

There was a moment of silence, a pause of thoughts before a question drifted between them.

"Why?"

A question asked thousands of times in a lifetime, millions of times, starting from the moment a life is born, asking why it existed, to the moment a life ended, asking why it had to be so.

And it was answered by the simplest answer of all. An answer that was accepted silently.

"Because I wanted to."

Promptly, emotions were held back, feelings unspoken, words unheard and a routine was set. People drifted by and disguises fell back onto that which it belonged to.

A smirk heard in the tone, "Is there any particular reason why you felt like dropping by onto my lap and making out with me?"

A blush settled over Naruto's face, stutters attempted to escape before in true Uzumaki form, a reply was created, "Well, I just thought that even a bastard like you deserved something good on the day of my birthday."

"It's your birthday. Why would I be the one getting something 'good' as you called that?"

Naruto laughed in the way that only he did, a self-confident laugh that spoke of nothing negative and everything positive, "Shouldn't everybody be celebrating the day the great Uzumaki Naruto was born?"

"You're a bit egotistical, aren't you?"

"Egotistical? Me? Never! I'm simply proud of who I am, as you should be Sasuke. As you will be." Naruto's voice dropped in his words a wistful tone creeping up onto him before Sasuke shifted and a blush returned onto his cheeks.

"Ah, sorry." Naruto hurriedly got off Sasuke's lap, expecting anything to come from the other boy at any moment.

Although definitely not expecting the soft smile that appeared and the quiet "Thank you" that was spoken.

A full grin appeared into Naruto's face, joy practically splitting his face in half.

"No problem Sasuke. Now! I was thinking, how about treating me to ramen on this wonderfully beautiful day of my birth? I was thinking about miso ramen, although maybe that's too ordinary for today. How about seafood ramen? Or the deluxe ramen that the old man at Ichiraku specifically makes for me when I have the money? Or maybe-"

Naruto stopped abruptly, seeing the look cross his friend's face.

"Erm... Sasuke? What's wrong?"

"It's nothing. I just don't really like ramen all that much."

A scandalized gasp escaped Naruto before he loudly declared, "Then I have a mission today!" he paused dramatically waiting for Sasuke to say something... anything.

He was not obliged. Sasuke merely raised an eyebrow in reply. Resisting the urge to pout, Naruto continued, "My mission today is to get you to like Ramen!"

Sasuke scoffed, "I'll like to see you try."

Thus, Naruto proceeded to drag Sasuke to Ichiraku, proclaiming all the way the virtues of ramen. There were a few attempts from Sasuke to regain his hand, but after several tries, he gave up and resigned to going to Ichiraku.

Arriving, Naruto ordered, as he said he would, his special deluxe ramen, filled with every type of vegetable and almost every type of meat and seafood available. Thankfully, Naruto seemed a bit more sensitive on his birthday as he only ordered Sasuke a simple seafood ramen. With an addition of fried tomatoes.

For that moment of time, the two ate in peace. Sasuke at a low pace, each bite of ramen chewed methodically, on the other side, Naruto ate in excitedly, each bite going in at a rapid speed. Throughout it all, a conversation continued, jumping from topic to topic. Here and there, they talked about everything and nothing at all.

Eating ramen at Ichiraku at that moment, Sasuke felt calm and content. It was moment stolen from everything that was going on around him, the fighting, the worrying, the sorrow. And in that moment with Naruto, ramen didn't seem so bad. Not if it meant that Naruto was there with him.

Owari

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La/-/er- This story... wandered. I wrote it with the intention as a humor fic (and a perverted one as I've resigned to the fact that I can't help but write a perverted story, look at all my other fics! Alright, the last three of 'em, my first three were just weird), and wandered into philosophical-ish thinking. It's a good thing my mind doesn't go deep enough for anything more. I think I managed to swerve into humor in bits and parts, I don't think I would've bothered to post this if there wasn't _something_ funny. And for those of you who read my multi-part story, my squirrels cameo's in here. Came for a visit, although the squirrel did something good in this story. 

So I hope you guys liked it. Tell me what you thought. I'm not too sure about this, but eh, whatever. I'd appreciate any thoughts you have. And I just realized my summary doesn't really fit anymore, hmm... too tired to think of anything else though. (Hey, this is exactly 4 pages in Microsoft Word)

10/2/04 7 p.m. to 9:51:34 p.m.


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